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12 Faces: Some Truly Disturbing Images of James Clapper on the View

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As The Federalist points out, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper appeared on The View today and did what was expected. He lied. Yet again.

In watching the clip, what struck me were the obvious signs of anxiety, paranoia, and deception. Judge for yourself by watching the clip or simply inspect the images I snapped below, which were not by any means cherry-picked.

Looking down, looking away, grimacing, and gesticulating wildly — why, yes, all signs of someone completely in his element and comfortable explaining their part in what will surely turn out to be the greatest political scandal in American history.

See for yourself at The Timeline of Treason. (For more from the author of “12 Faces: Some Truly Disturbing Images of James Clapper on the View” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Rush Calls Deep State Agent James Clapper a Liar over His Explanation of the FBI Informant in Trump’s Campaign

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That’s what talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh is saying after Barack Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, claimed it was a “good thing” if the reports that the Obama administration had someone spying on the Trump campaign are true.

Clapper said in a CNN interview the Obama administration’s FBI “may have had someone who was talking to them in the campaign, but, you know, the focus here … is not on the campaign, per se, but what the Russians were doing. ”

[Rush responded:] “You know, here’s another thought. And this is how I know that the snake Clapper is lying. Clapper tells CNN ‘Oh, no, no, no, we weren’t interested in the Trump campaign, our spy. We think it was a good thing the FBI had a spy to look for pernicious activity from the Russians, the Russians tampering with our electoral process. It was a good thing they had a spy in that campaign, not to look at the Trump campaign, but to look at the Russians.’

“Mr. Clapper, then why didn’t you put a spy in the Hillary campaign? She was interacting with the Russians. She was rigging the DNC primary. She did hire a guy to write a phony opposition research with Russian agents on Trump. The Hillary campaign was intertwined with the Russians for months. Why didn’t you have a spy in her campaign, if it was the Russians you were really interested in? Why not look at how Hillary was working with them?”

Limbaugh’s conclusion: “But of course they weren’t looking for the Russians, because I think they’ve known from the get-go the Russians didn’t affect the outcome of this election. Remember, if Hillary had won, you’d a never heard about the Russians, other than whatever steps they took to destroy Trump, which I think they would have done. Even if Trump had lost, I think they would have made moves to further destroy this guy, to send the message to any other outsiders, ‘Don’t even think about trying this. Look what we’ll do to you.’” (Read more from “Rush Calls Deep State Agent James Clapper a Liar over His Explanation of the FBI Informant in Trump’s Campaign” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

U.S. Intelligence Chief Bars Unauthorized Contacts with Reporters On All Intel-Related Matters

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Photo Credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY — MCT

Photo Credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY — MCT

Employees of U.S. intelligence agencies have been barred from discussing without authorization any intelligence-related matter – even if it isn’t classified – with journalists, under a new directive issued by Director of National Security James Clapper.

Intelligence agency employees who violate the policy could suffer career-ending losses of their security clearances or out-right termination, and those who disclose classified information could face criminal prosecution, according to the directive signed by Clapper on March 20.

Under the order, only the director or deputy head of an intelligence agency, public affairs officials and those authorized by a public affairs official may have contact with journalists on intelligence-related matters.

The order, which was made public on Monday by Steven Aftergood, who runs the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, is sweeping in its definition of intelligence-related matters.

“The directive is limited to contact with the media about intelligence related-information, including intelligence sources, methods, activities and judgments,” says the order, which doesn’t distinguish between classified and unclassified matters.

Read more from this story HERE.

NSA Performed Warrantless Searches on Americans’ Calls and Emails

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Photo Credit: Shawn Thew/EPA

Photo Credit: Shawn Thew/EPA

Spencer Ackerman and James Ball.

US intelligence chiefs have confirmed that the National Security Agency has used a “back door” in surveillance law to perform warrantless searches on Americans’ communications.

The NSA’s collection programs are ostensibly targeted at foreigners, but in August the Guardian revealed a secret rule change allowing NSA analysts to search for Americans’ details within the databases.

Now, in a letter to Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the intelligence committee, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has confirmed for the first time the use of this legal authority to search for data related to “US persons”.

“There have been queries, using US person identifiers, of communications lawfully acquired to obtain foreign intelligence targeting non-US persons reasonably believed to be located outside the United States,” Clapper wrote in the letter, which has been obtained by the Guardian.

“These queries were performed pursuant to minimization procedures approved by the Fisa court and consistent with the statute and the fourth amendment.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: fedsocblog

Photo Credit: fedsocblog

Tools for Lawyers Worried That NSA Is Eavesdropping On Their Confidential Conversations

The ABA Journal reports:

Are you concerned that Big Brother (including the National Security Agency) is not only watching, but listening, recording and even transcribing your confidential client conversations?

The good news for lawyers worried about maintaining their duty of confidentiality is that there are tools and safeguards to help them. In a session entitled “N.S.A.y What? Firm and Client Data Security & Encryption in the Age of Monitoring” held at ABA Techshow on Friday, Sensei Enterprises vice president John Simek and Oracle Corporation’s Chris Ries provided tips on gadgets and best practices for lawyers to use if they wish to avoid the NSA’s massive net.

“Lawyers need to be very cognizant of their communications being intercepted by NSA,” said Simek. Even worse for lawyers is that they can’t even be certain what the law is, since the status of the NSA’s various programs and the data they collect seems to change every day. Plus, given the secretive nature of the NSA, as well as the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that oversees its surveillance warrants, lawyers can’t even be sure of what is and what is not legal.

As such, Ries and Simek said lawyers should assume all of their conversations are subject to NSA surveillance and take steps to protect confidential information. To begin with, they recommended that all emails, electronic messages and communications be encrypted. There’s no shortage of available encryption hardware and software, and they recommended lawyers use an encryption service such as Zix Corporation’s ZixCorp or the open-sourced TrueCrypt. Platform-specific devices are also available, such as Microsoft’s BitLocker to Go and Apple’s FileVault. Lawyers can also purchase encrypted hard drives, including Symantec Corporation’s PGP Whole Disk Encryption and Sophos Ltd.’s Safeguard, as well as encrypted flash drives such as IronKey from Imation Corp.

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Insists James Clapper Will Not Lead NSA Surveillance Review

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Photo Credit: EPABy Ewen MacAskill

The White House has moved to dampen controversy over the role of the director of national intelligence James Clapper in a panel reviewing NSA surveillance, insisting that he would neither lead it nor choose the members.

Statements by Barack Obama and Clapper on Monday night were widely interpreted as the director of national intelligence being placed in charge of the inquiry, which the president had announced on Friday would be “independent”.

The apparent involvement of Clapper, who has admitted lying to Congress over NSA surveillance of US citizens, provoked a backlash, with critics accusing the president of putting a fox in charge of the hen house.

But the White House national security council insisted on Tuesday that Clapper’s role would be more limited.

“The panel members are being selected by the White House, in consultation with the intelligence community,” national security council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APIntelligence committee withheld key file before critical NSA vote, Amash claims

By Spencer Ackerman

A leader of the US congressional insurrection against the National Security Agency’s bulk surveillance programs has accused his colleagues of withholding a key document from the House of Representatives before a critical surveillance vote.

Justin Amash, the Michigan Republican whose effort to defund the NSA’s mass phone-records collection exposed deep congressional discomfort with domestic spying, said the House intelligence committee never allowed legislators outside the panel to see a 2011 document that described the surveillance in vague terms.

The document, a classified summary of the bulk phone records collection effort justified under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, was declassified by the Obama administration in late July.

The Justice Department and intelligence agencies prepared it for Congress before a 2011 vote to reauthorize the Patriot Act, and left it for the intelligence committees in Congress to make the document available to their colleagues.

“It is not acceptable for the intelligence committee, or any other committee, to withhold critically important information pertaining to a program prior to the vote,” Amash told the Guardian.

Read more from this story HERE.

NSA Surveillance Critics – Including Glenn Greenwald – to Testify Before Congress

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Photo Credit: Michael Reynolds/EPACongress will hear testimony from critics of the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices for the first time since the whistleblower Edward Snowden’s explosive leaks were made public.

[Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first revealed details of the surveillance programmes leaked by Snowden, had also been invited to testify via video-link from his base in Rio.]

Democratic congressman Alan Grayson, who is leading a bipartisan group of congressman organising the hearing, told the Guardian it would serve to counter the “constant misleading information” from the intelligence community.

The hearing, which will take place on Wednesday, comes amid evidence of a growing congressional rebellion NSA data collection methods.

On Wednesday, a vote in the House of Representatives that would have tried to curb the NSA’s practice of mass collection of phone records of millions of Americans was narrowly defeated.

However, it exposed broader-than-expected concern among members of Congress over US surveillance tactics…

Read more from this story HERE.